Have you ever won a medal at school or college? The feeling of being rewarded for your accomplishments is extremely fulfilling, right?
Now, imagine being the recipient for the highest award there is for your contribution towards the betterment of society.
The Nobel Prize is the highest civilian award in the world, awarded by the Swedish government to people from all across the globe. Nobel Prizes are awarded in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.
Given below, is a nobel prize winners list in india.
Also Read: Rabindranath Tagore – Nobel Prize for Literature (1913), CV Raman – Nobel Prize for Physics (1930) & Har Gobind Khorana : (Physiology or Medicine, 1968)
Nobel Prize Winners List in India
1. Rabindranath Tagore – Nobel Prize for Literature (1913) :
Born on May 7, 1861, in Calcutta - Bengal Presidency. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath
Who worked as a writer, playwright, poet, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter.
His work ‘Jana, gana mana’ was chosen to be the National Anthem of India and ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ the National Anthem of Bangladesh.
He was awarded knighthood by the British government in the year 1915,
Which he renounced after the Jallianwala Baug massacre in 1919. He was the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetic work Gitanjali in the year 1913.
His award motivation reads “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.”
As a matter of fact, his Nobel was stolen in the year 2004 from Santiniketan and was later found in the year 2006.
2. CV Raman – Nobel Prize for Physics (1930)
Born in Tiruchirapalli, Madras Presidency, British Raj on 7 November 1888, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman. was an Indian physicist
known for his work in the field of light scattering. For his discovery of the Raman Effect, i.e. the phenomenon that explains the blueness of the sky and the ocean,
On February 28, 1928 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1930.
The day of the discovery of the Raman Effect is also celebrated as Science Day in India to honour CV Raman.
The Government of India also honoured him with the first Bharat Ratna which is the highest civilian award in India. Official rationale justifying his Nobel prize reads: “For his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him.”
He was a great asset to his country and its honour and on his death, Prime minister Indira Gandhi gave the following statement, “The country, the House [of Parliament], and every one of us will mourn the death of Dr. C. V. Raman.
He was the greatest scientist of modern India and one of the greatest intellects our country has produced in its long history. His mind was like a diamond, which he studied and explained.
His life's work consisted in throwing light upon the nature of lights, and the world honoured him in many ways for the new knowledge which he won for science.”
3. Har Gobind Khorana : (Physiology or Medicine, 1968)
Born on 9th January 1922 in Raipur, Multan during the British Raj, Har Gobind Khorana was an Indian American biochemist.
Until the age of 6, he did not even own a pencil. The first four school years of his life, he received education under a tree.
In his autobiography, Khorana wrote, "Although poor, my father was dedicated to educating his children
And we were practically the only literate family in the village inhabited by about 100 people."
His hard work and resilience won him his Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in the year 1968 i.e, two years after he was naturalised as an American citizen.
He shared the Nobel with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that showed the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell and control the cell's synthesis of proteins.
Official rationale justifying his Nobel prize reads: “For their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.” He was also awarded the Padma Vibhushan, which is the second highest civilian award in India.
4. Mother Teresa – Nobel Peace Prize (1979)
Born Anjezë Gonxhe, in Skopje on 26 August 1910, Mother Teresa moved to Ireland and then to India when she was 19, where she lived for most of her life.
Although she was born on 26th August, she thought 27th August to be her true birthday, which was the day she was baptised.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1979, for her charitable work with the poor, children, people with HIV/AIDS, etc.
She was also posthumously canonised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 2016.
She was also awarded the Padma Shri in 1962 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969. Official rationale justifying his Nobel prize reads:
In recognition of [her] work in bringing help to suffering humanity. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, The government of India issued a special ₹5 coin (the amount of money Mother Teresa had when she arrived in India) on 28 August 2010.
5. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar – Nobel Prize for Physics (1983)
Born on 19th October 1910, in Lahore, undivided British India, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indian-American astrophysicist.
He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A.
Fowler for "...theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars''.
The ‘Chandrasekhar Limit’ which is the scientific term for the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star was named after him.
He was also awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1968 which is the second highest civilian award in India. After his death, his widow Lalitha Chandrasekhar made a gift of his Nobel Prize money to the University of Chicago
Towards the establishment of the Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Memorial Fellowship. Official rationale justifying his Nobel prize reads: “For his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars.”
6. Amartya Sen – Nobel Prize for Economics (1998)
Born on 3rd November 1933, in Bengal during the British Raj, Amartya Kumar Sen, is an Indian economist and philosopher.
He was given his name by Rabindrath Tagore. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in the year 1998 for his work on Welfare Economics.
He began his career both as a teacher and a research scholar in the Department of Economics at Jadavpur University as a professor of economics in 1956.
His main areas of research are Social choice theory, Development economics and Welfare economics.
Official rationale justifying his Nobel prize reads: for his contribution in Welfare economics. He has authored many books – the Argumentative Indian being one of them. Amartya Sen is the fourth Indian to bring a Nobel Prize to India.
7. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)
Born in 1952 in Chidambaram, an ancient temple town in Tamil Nadu, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is the son of two highly accomplished scientists.
In his Nobel biography he says that his father wasn’t present when he was born, he actually saw him when he was 6 months old.
He moved to Baroda, now Vadodara, when he was three years of age and struggled with the culture shock during his early childhood.
In 2009, Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome. He received India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2010.
He also received Knighthood from the British government in the year 2012 but he generally doesn’t use the title ‘Sir’. Official rationale justifying his Nobel prize reads: For studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.
8. Kailash Satyarthi – Nobel Peace Prize (2014)
Born Kailash Sharma on January 11, 1954, in Vidisha MAdhya Pradesh, Kailash Satyarthi was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize,
Along with Malala Yousafzai, "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education”.
He is the founder of multiple social activist organizations, including Global March Against Child Labour, Bachpan Bachao Andolan,
Global Campaign for Education, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation and Bal Ashram Trust.
He has liberated over 88,000 children from child labour and slavery till date and continues to work for their progress.
9. Abhijit Banerjee – Nobel Prize for Economics (2019)
Born on February 21, 1961, in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Abhijit Banerjee is an Indian-born naturalised American economist.
Both his parents were professors of economics. He completed his MA in Economics from JNU in 1983 and PhD from Harvard University in 1988.
He shares the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty".
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo are married and are the sixth married couple to jointly win the Nobel Prize.
Official rationale justifying his Nobel prize reads: “For their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.
Frequently Asked Question
Q1. Who won the Nobel Prize Winners list in India?
Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa, CV Raman, Har Gobind Khorana, Abhijit Banerjee, Kailash Satyarthi, Amartya Sen and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
Q2. Who has won 3 Nobel Prizes?
The International Committee of the Red Cross.
Q3. Which state has the most Nobel Prize winners in India?
West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
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